Social network sites: was this the plan?

In their article, Boyd and Ellison discuss the emergence and development of social network sites (SNSs). They begin by noting that while these web entities mainly "support the maintenance of pre-existing social networks," others take shared interests into account and "help strangers connect." They claim that audiences vary in degree of diversity, where "[s]ome sites cater to diverse audiences, while attract people based on common... identities." Boyd & Ellison wisely mention that the incorporation of new information and communication tools, like "mobile connctivity, blogging, and photo/video-sharing," differs between SNSs as well.

The authors outline criteria for defining a social network site: "web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system." They justify their use of the term "network" over "networking" in discussing these sites, explaining that while "networking" suggests new relationships between strangers, social "network" sites let users define and present their existing social networks. Though interaction can occur that would not otherwise, usually links happen between "latent ties" so that users mostly get in touch with people already in their extended offline network.

Boyd and Ellison continue by describing the variation between social network sites. They mention how profile visibility differs site to site, but all SNSs record the user's relationship with others in the system (e.g. "Friends," "Contacts," and "Fans). They note that labels can be misleading,  "Friends" in particular, because relationship confirmation is not always bi-directional. "Public display of connections" is a pivotal feature of SNSs, according to Boyd and Ellison, where the visibility of relationship display changes depending on the site. Although messaging – whether through comments or private messages resembling e-mail – is a fairly widespread feature of SNSs, they recount how some sites began with other purposes as forums, blogs, instant messaging services, community sites, and directories to name a few.

Some of the uses of social network sites that Boyd and Ellison delve into are impression management, self-presentation, and friendship performance. For instance, Boyd analyzed Friendster as a hub of openly articulated social networks that let users manage their self-presentation and connect with others, and went on to suggest that this was a crucial tool for people to navigate the global social network and validate identity information in profiles. Boyd also argued that profiles could never be "real," given the varying expectation of authenticity across sites. The authors give examples supporting the idea that, oftentimes, impression management is the motivation behind choosing particular "friends."

I find this fascinating. I was in middle school when I started a Xanga, in high school when I signed up for Facebook, and in college when I made a blog and joined other SNSs. I suppose my somewhat innocent reasons for initially entering the global social network of the web in 7th grade haven't worn off. I used, and still use, social network services mostly for the reasons Boyd and Ellison first described: to communicate with and maintain my pre-existing extended offline network. Are all of my 226 Facebook friends people I consider my buddies? By no means, but that number is still fairly low compared to a lot of  Facebook users. I try to be as honest as I can when it comes to who my "friends" are. I'm one of those weird folks who ignores friend requests from random people and deletes old high school classmates that aren't true friends. I think the inherent publicity of "public displays of connection" makes us feel a little guilty to turn anything down on the Internet, because our actions are indirectly announced. No one knows that I ignored Bianca Talle's friend request except for Bianca, and that awkward situation wouldn't normally happen in real life. I can't help but wonder, did creators of social network sites see this coming? Did they anticipate this happening and just shrug their shoulders? Is it even necessarily wrong to have an unrealistic SNS profile? I'm going to keep being as honest as I can, but maybe I should engage in some impression management myself.